Little Dutch Boy

All right then – are you ready to start plugging holes in our health care system?

Good – let’s get started by first finding some holes to plug.

Oh, some holes are obvious, and others are veiled by layers of smoke and mirrors. So, let’s find some obvious holes first – you know – to get the ball rolling. To find these holes, we should ask one of the leading experts in the field of loopholes that lead to wasteful spending of our collective health care dollar.

I am referring, of course, to Drew Carey.



You all know Drew – the portly, friendly-faced comedian with the blonde crew-cut and the thick horn-rimmed glasses. For the past year or so, Drew Carey has been the host of the extremely popular daytime game show ‘The Price Is Right”. Tune in any day, and watch the commercials – they are very enlightening!

Aside from the usual pharmaceutical commercials, you will be bombarded by commercials for medically related products that you would never think need to be advertised on national TV. Diabetic testing supplies. Catheters. Power Wheelchairs.

Plus, the announcer states over and over ‘Medicare and your insurance company will get you these items at little or no cost to you!’ ‘Star Trek Economics’ strikes again.

“I want to go-go-go in my hoveround” “it didn’t cost me a penny!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKPeYrrhIvQ

How many people need a $7,000 power wheel chair? And if, god forbid, you did require one, wouldn’t your doctor put you in touch with a local supplier?

Diabetic Testing Supplies – Get your free meter – the supplies (that work with this free meter) are covered by Medicare -we’ll even order them and deliver them for free!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXQaMaBxwRg


How about re-using catheters? Not any more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFEio0OCWek


OK, let me be 100% clear her – I am not against diabetics, wheelchair bound individuals, or people who need to use catheters. But please understand that these represent a relatively small portion of society. So why are we bombarded by expensive television commercials for these products that also happen to be covered by Medicare and Private Health Insurance? How can these suppliers afford to do this? The average 30 second TV commercial run nationwide costs around $100,000.00 to air. How can a company selling catheters drop ½ million a week on advertising?

There can only be one answer – there is a ridiculously high profit on these products. If there weren’t, . they would not be able to air all of these commercials and still remain profitable. This means that Medicare and Health Insurance carriers are paying far, far too much for these products – and that means we all are paying too much for them.

Need more proof? Check out what these wheelchairs sell for used. A power chair that is only a few months old in perfect condition will lose 75% or more of its value – it seems that they are not worth so much when insurance is not paying for them.

So lets start by identifying these over-priced products and restructuring the amounts that are being Medicare and Private Insurance are paying for them. This won’t have a major impact on health care cost, but it’s a start, and an easy one at that. After all, Drew has already found them out for us.

(As a side note, I would LOVE for a Hoveround Wheelchair to be featured on a The Price Is Right” showcase, just to show how much these things actually cost – I bet that few people watching the show has any idea that they cost around $7,000.00).
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